Blogs

"Grand Theft Auto IV," the new installment in Jack Thompson's favorite series of video games, is now wreaking havoc on America's PS3s and Xbox 360s. According to a Reuters story today, "GTA IV" is "expected to be the biggest entertainment event of the year," which must come as a shock to anyone named Spielberg, Lucas or Rowling. Industry watchers say the game could rack up $400 million in sales in the first week, which is way more money than Indiana Jones should expect to whip up this summer (well, in North America, anyways).

Here's the news release being sent around to reporters:
Agreement Reached on Pay-to-Play Ban
CHICAGO – State Representative John Fritchey (D-Chicago), State Comptroller Dan Hynes, State Senator Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), Cindi Canary, Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, and other legislators will announce the agreement on legislation that will prohibit state contractors from contributing money to elected officials in charge of awarding or overseeing state contracts. The legislation has been stalled in the General Assembly for three years.
DATE: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
TIME: 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: State Capitol Press Room
Springfield, Illinois

Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano showed up with a little surprise this afternoon: a cleanly shaved head.
"What?" he asked in mock anger as reporters wanted to ask about the chrome dome. "You want to know anything, just wait until I pitch."
Right fielder Kosuke Fukudome will be on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated.
"I'm not quite sure how important this is because I haven't seen the magazine," he said through his translator.
What about the SI jinx? Did word of it ever reach Japan?
"It's a lot of other people who are not actually on the cover saying it's jinxed," he said.
Here's how the Cubs line up tonight against the Brew Crew:
Johnson, LF
Theriot, SS
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Fukudome, RF
DeRosa, 2B
Soto, C
Pie, CF
Marquis, P

A few hours before Tuesday night's game against the Twins up here in the Land of the Walleye, the White Sox were still thawing out from Monday's suspended game against the Orioles at U.S. Cellular Field.
The game was stopped with the score tied at 3 after 11 innings of rainy, cold, windy conditions. It will be resumed on Aug. 25 at Baltimore's Camden Yards.
Catcher A.J. Pierzynski reiterated on Tuesday how bad the playing field was.
"There was a lake out in front of home plate,'' Pierzynski said. "I've never seen anything like it. They had all the kitty litter down on the field, but if you moved it out of the way, it was all water.''

UPDATE 5: The Senate's Executive Committee approved a new version of a recall amendment Tuesday evening. This would be the same committee that had an unruly committee hearing two weeks ago only to decide it wouldn't consider a previous version of recall. If things go as planned, the Senate's final approval would likely come on Thursday and then the House would be in session through the weekend to make the May 4 deadline. Expect to hear a lot more about recall in the next few days.
***UPDATE 4: We're jumping this one to the top because of its importance.

My two earliest memories are almost like a blueprint for my entire life.

In my mind, life began in 1981 at the Twin Drive-In in Wheeling, where my parents took their 2-year-old son for what would be the first of many viewings of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." I vividly remember watching the nefarious Nazis' faces melting through the windshield of the maroon Plymouth Duster that would serve us well until the floods of 1987. To this day, whenever I think of "Raiders" (which is often lately, given what comes to theaters May 22), I think of Toht's glasses dropping to the ground as his face drips away.

Added another new ballpark to the list over the weekend when I visited Nationals Park in Washington. Call me underwhelmed. While the Nats' new park is much nicer than old RFK Stadium, that's not saying much.

If you're riding the Red Line today, take a look at the Wrigley Field scoreboard as you hit the Addison St. stop. In addition to the "W" flag, which signifies a victory, the Cubs also will be flying a "10,000" flag, commemorating the franchise's 10,000th victory, achieved Wednesday night at Colorado.
The Cubs have been around since 1876, and if not for some real lean periods, we'd have been celebrating No. 10,000 a lot sooner. During one of those periods, from 1947-66, the Cubs finished at .500 or above just twice, capping it with a record of 59-103 in '66. Before that season, new manager Leo Durocher proclaimed that the Cubs weren't an eighth-place ballclub. Nope. They finished 10th in 1966.
If not for years like that, heck, we could have been around to witness No. 20,000.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich made ESPN's Sports Center this morning with his talk about how important it is to keep the Cubs playing in Wrigley. From what I know of the governor, making ESPN might rank up there as one of his greatest accomplishments in office.
As for the actual issue, which is more likely:
Blagojevich winning a third term or the Cubs leaving Wrigley for a new stadium?